


Another Option

by Juliet316



Category: Charmed
Genre: Au departure from canon, F/M, Gen, Minor Canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-18
Updated: 2010-10-18
Packaged: 2017-10-12 18:17:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/127699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juliet316/pseuds/Juliet316
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, there is another option</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Option

**Author's Note:**

> Written for challenge three at Charmed_LAS.

It was too late.

It was always too late it seemed.

Cole stared at Barbas, fully knowing what he would have to retake the Source's powers once the Charmed Ones vanquished the Fear Demon again. He looked at Phoebe as she was beginning to recite the spell. She wouldn't look at him because she knew as well as he did. They both knew that any chance he ever would have had with Phoebe or any sort of redemption would be shot after that. The darkness of the Source's powers would consume him just as they had the first time, as they would have surely consumed him had Paige not been tricked by Barbas.

He wished he would have never touched the Hollow. The choice had been the only one to save everybody, but it had damned him forever in the process.

As the regret passed through his mind, a thought suddenly arose within.

"Of course," he whispered, "Why didn't I think of that before? Phoebe!"

She turned a questioning look on her face for her ex - husband.

"The Hollow. Summon it; Paige can orb it into the cage without it touching anybody."

Under standing dawned in her eyes. Phoebe shared a look with her sisters, than said they recited summoning spelling. As soon as it appeared, Paige shouted "Cage!" and it orbed into the cage with the Fear Demon. Cole takes some pleasure in seeing Barbas scream in pain as the sisters said the incantation to extract the powers and place them into the Hollow. Without the powers, he fades back into the afterlife. Back into hell.

Using what trace elements were left of the powers taken from him, Cole and Phoebe recite the spell to send it back to the burial ground from which the Source had taken it from in the first place.

It was over.

Where did they all go from here?

Phoebe gave her ex another look. This time it was a cross between apprehension and, what Cole thought might have been hope.

At least he wanted to think it was hope.

She stepped towards him, and put her hand into his.

Perhaps, this time, it wasn't too late for him.


End file.
